State Bank of India to Shut Nine Foreign Branches

The State Bank of India (SBI) is set to close down nine overseas branches as part of a process to rationalize operations, Managing Director Pravin K Gupta said, PTI reported.

SBI has already shut down six foreign branches over the last two years. The state lender currently operates through about 190 branches in 36 countries, the report added.

“Capital is generally a constraint for most of the bank sites. Obviously, you want to use your capital at the place where it is best utilised. So, as a part of our foreign branch rationalisation, we have closed about six branches already in the last two years. There are nine more branches under the process to be closed down,” Gupta told the news agency in an interview.

Some of the branches that are scheduled for closure are small centers and not full-fledged branches, Gupta said, adding that there is a need to rationalize the small or retail branches in countries like Bangladesh and South Africa. The move will involve closing down of some small branches, or merging of two-three branches into one.

Opening a lot of foreign offices at this point of time is also not viable, he said.

“If you see globally, we are already present in the major centers. I don’t think there is any major global center where we are not present. So the need to go to too many new countries at this point of time is not really felt,” Gupta added, according to the report.

The Department of Financial Services had earlier asked all the public sector banks to assess the performance of all the 216 overseas centers and shut down operations in unviable locations.

State-owned banks closed down 35 overseas branches and representative offices by March this year as part of the initiative. Among the banks that undertook the rationalization measures was the Bank of India, which closed down operations in Dubai, Yangoon and Botswana. Indian Overseas Bank also shut its branches in Dubai and Hong Kong, while Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank and Union Bank of India closed their Shanghai offices.

The Dubai branches of Andhra Bank, and IDBI Bank were also closed. Bank of Baroda also shut its Hong Kong branch.

SBI, India’s largest lender, was earlier reported to be planning to shut its non-viable branches in China, Sri Lanka, Oman, Saudi Arabia, France and Botswana by 2019. The processes of closing have been started for the Tianjin branch in China and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, the report added.